darth_ender said:
Can't watch the video at the moment, but I'll check when I can. Okay, fine, it's a real stance. I stand corrected. It still seems weird to me, but I did admit I'm no fencing pro. It was just an observation, and apparently a pretty ignorant one. Apparently I'm good at making myself look dumb too.
It's a pretty standard stance for many forms of sword fighting to be honest (I've done a little bit of sword fighting in Aikido and tried out fencing and Kendo). I wouldn't feel dumb about it though, most people don't know much about sword fighting except for what they've seen in films, which are usually very unrealistic (Twilight Samurai and Kingdom of Heaven are two exceptions to that rule).
From my perspective as someone has tried out Sword Fighting (though I'm no expert) the OT fights are a lot more realistic, I posted a Kendo video elsewhere to prove this point. It's actually a lot closer to the Vader vs Obi Wan in ANH, but most people think thats the worst fight of the series.. I think this is more down to comparing sword fights to other films than an actual knowledge of sword fighting.However Star Wars is basically an escape movie, so the sword fights being unrealistic isn't make or break for me, and I think many prefer more fancy fights to the Obi-Wan - Vader one in ANH.
I don't have a great connection atm so can't go looking for another, but a quick "Kendo World Championships" search on youtube should prove example enough for what real sword fights look like. Guess it depends what your looking for, but a lot of the fighting stances in the PT are crap, and would get you butchered pretty quickly. As a side not, Dooku swings horizontally and Anakin's arm gets chopped vertically... How does that make sense?
Moving on, with regards integrating the two trilogies;
TPM; I'd prefer a much older Anakin on Tatooine. I think it would make for a much more realistic romance story, as well as him having an argument with his uncle over if he should join the Clone Wars (to match up with Obi-Wan saying in ANH "did't hold with your fathers ideal's thought he shouldn't of gotten involved". Would also have Obi-Wan as already a Jedi Knight instead of being a Padawan - which removes the whole "Yoda the Jedi Master who trained me" issue. Possibly have the invasion of Naboo as the beggining of the Clone Wars... Would like Anakin to deliberately destroy the droid control ship... L8rtr did do this in his excellent edit, but I think it would be better to remove the "ships overheated" and just have Anakin, skid in, shoot the reactor, then flyout.
AotC; I'd like Anakin, just to have normal Jedi robes, as seen in the original RotJ ghost scene... It would reflect his darkening charachter in RotS that he then changes to the darker ones. Would also I think more sense of the force Ghost of him in RotJ with normal robes.
For RotS, I'd like Anakin to confront the Emporer/Sidious alone, and end with him being shot by Sidious lightning. "Do not underestimate the powers of the Emperor or suffer your fathers fate you will" This would be the last time we see Hayden as Anakin (thank God!) - Would be good if when Mace is about to Kill Sidious, Vader in suit chops his hand off, think that would be a great reveal moment, of Vader coming about. Would also love to see more of Vader hunting the Jedi down... Then have Vader invading the Jedi Temple in suit, then also fighting Obi-Wan on Mustafar with Vader in suit. Not sure if any of that is possible, but I can dream :-p. I think the former also solves the whole shock reveal thing of Vader being Anakin. No Padme dying either... For obvious reasons.
@MrinsaneA - it took an age, but watched your video, I actually quite like the music you integrated, certainly thought it was better than the original score.